Bay City, Day 4 - Back to Ahern

One day, many years ago (or so it feels), a refugee from the northern land of New Alba landed upon the continent in the land known as Second Life, in the Ahern/Bonifacio/Dore/Morris Welcome Area. Caledon was as yet unknown - that would come later - so she wandered the nearby lands, learning about the arcane ways of this place.

Seeing that Ahern was nearby Nova Albion - itself a cruel reminder of that lost country of her youth - she extended her journey just a little farther, to check against her imperfect memory what has remained the same and what has changed in the intervening years. This is a nostalgia trip...

In Bonifacio, the Venice vegetable stand provided fine-looking produce...but was otherwise in the middle of nothing.


One thing that had not changed were the Orientation Stations done in oriental style...a counterpart to Oxbridge's occidental architecture serving much the same purpose. Except: Oxbridge is always staffed by courteous, helpful faculty, whereas this was empty.


The Ahern Welcome Area was the same as it ever was - and as full as it ever was.

Much of the surrounding area was barren. The Gibson sim remained, though was a shadow of its former self. The Darkwood medieval towers appeared similar to what I recalled; a note said this was an attempt to return the area to what it used to be.

Lusk was still furry-friendly. The enormous tree that I vaguedly recalled was decked out for Christmas, while furries danced below.

Traveling past Lusk and several intervening areas, I last stopped in Jessie, the famed combat area. It is still a damage-enabled area, very oddly terraformed: impassibly high mountains drop off with a 100 meter or more fall. Little seemed to be going on there at the time. Although I was armed, I was a little nervous, so I did not spend much time there. Reaching an air terminal, I purchased passage back to Caledon.

In some regards, this was a good trip, as it reminded me why I spend most of my time in the Steamlands. Though there were points of interest, the area had no unifying theme or architecture, and few people outside the infohubs. I was glad to be home.